Crooked House

beginning levels 2nd ed. w high adventure

Pierre stood over the dead necromancer still exulting in victory. The only good necromancer is a dead necromancer. Even though he had slain Fizboth 20 minutes ago, he was still celebrating. The rest of the party, some of them nearly dead, were recovering. Breka prayed in the corner. Sage healed people. Chunks of destroyed flesh golem were everywhere, and James the Angry was trying to search Fizboth’s body. “Get out of the way, Pierre, you colossal dick!”

“You just wish you had killed him”

James found, among other possessions, a pouch with curiously shaped wood pieces. They detected magical. “Hmm” interjected Michelle. “Looks like a puzzle”

After some recovery, they began to inspect the room a bit more closely. Sage noticed a section of wall that could be a secret door, and which had an oddly shaped indent beside it. “This doesn’t look like any kind of keyhole i know of, but i”m pretty sure its connected to the door. I hate magic."

After some poking and prodding by various party members, Michelle brought out the wooden pieces and began trying to fit them in the hold. “Maybe these are the key. A weird magical puzzle key.” With everyone’s help, they were soon arranged so they perfectly fit into the keyhole. Suddenly, the stonework creaked and like a clockwork, some mechanism opened the secret door to reveal a closet sized niche. FIlled with another flesh golem!

But, one flesh golem was no match for 6 brave adventurers. Soon it too was reduced to a disgusting pile of body parts and fluids. The closet sized niche was Fizboth’s treasure chamber! Inside was a small box. James opened the small box and was surprised by a small explosion, burning off his eyebrows and singing his fine half-elven hair. “F^c&!”

Michelle took the charred box from the smoldering half-elf and looked inside. It contained a small book. Upon opening Michelle found that it was Fizboth’s journal. Immediately the party began reading it. It contained much information about the Core Lands. Fizboth had spent several months trying to decipher the power structures and ecosystem of this cursed land.

The two most startling discoveries from Fizboth’s journal was that there was a very powerful Lich that lived in the ruins of the capital city of the former Eternal Empire of the Sun. The Lich went by the name Malleous Githorum. The second was that the old city was protected by a strong magical barrier. This barrier, though, had a key. It was similar to the smaller puzzle-key that Fizboth had made, but on a much larger scale. The charred box had one magical piece of the puzzle. Through divination and other means, Fizboth had found the likely locations of the 6 other pieces and noted them in his journal.

The next steps in the hero’s ongoing quest was now clear – find the other 6 pieces of the puzzle-key so that they could destroy Malleous Githorum.

The hunt begins

The players, armed with their dead foes journal, set off through the dangerous core lands. They met a group of impoverished orcs who collected a small toll to pass one the few roads through the Core Lands. Sage barely managed to keep his cool.

They then encountered a tribe of Hill Orcs in the ruins of an old city, The brigands were quickly disposed of.

Finally, they made it to an island that Fizboth had described as the residence of a strange cult. The cult seems in some ways to center around water. Indeed the setting is on and island in a river that is full of many springs. The players met some of the very friendly practitioners was managed to obtain an audience with the second highest official in the cult.

i.e. kill some liches

After returning from the wastes of Yanbu, everyone rested their weary bodies, somehow aware that great trials awaited them. St. Julius called everyone into this study and gave a brief history of the Necromancer wars. St. Julius and his companions thought they had destroyed all the Liches. But in the past decades him and several others “watchers” have noticed signs of a growing evil. It is now apparent that there are in fact two Liches active. One, Nickolas the Bad, has a stronghold and dwells somewhere underneath the ruins of the former imperial city, the Eternal City of the Sun. He has over 10s and 100s of years been quietly gathering his strength. Furthermore, in the lands of the old Witch Kings, dwells the Lich who was formerly known as Irene the Unsteady. Both of them must be destroyed by the players. This is the quest that St. Julius, in cooperation with the Fairie Queen and others, originally assembled the players together. (Except for Pierre…whose joining the party was an accident and not at all intended or even possibly desired).

St. Julius has also been keeping an eye on the old nemesis of the players, Michelle’s old master Fizboth. He had grown powerful to the point where St. Julius can no longer keep track on him by magical means. But, before he slipped of the crystal ball, St. Julius saw definite signs that Fizboth was aiming to become a Lich and beginning to secure the means. As a first quest, the players must find and destroy Fizboth, before two Liches become three.

To find Fizboth would not be easy. He could be in the Burdundy Kingdom, the Princely Free States, or even the ruins of Nekaloti, where the players had formerly banished evil. St. Julius had seen Fizboth in all three places. One clue existed – in order to become a Lich Fizboth would need to procure a phylactery. This would be some type of finely crafted item that could only be made in a handful of locations. The dwarfs or the elves could make one, but wouldn’t. Several large cities in the Burgundy Kingdom, the Princely Free States, or the Empire would have craftsmen of sufficient skill.

Also, the player would need to figure out what to do with the Moon Gazer and her crew. After some discussion the players decided to head back to Marsy, the port city where they had originally found Jeremiah. But, they had to sail back through the Goblin Isles to get there. The Goblins jelously gaurd the trade routes to the Spice Islands. On the second day of the three day journey through the Goblin Isles a Goblin ship sighted and gave chase to the Moongazer. During the night the players were able to stay ahead, but the goblin ship caught up around dawn. But quick thinking and two suggestion spells by Michelle and James were able to drive off the Goblin authories.

Back in Marsy, the players found a banking house to deposit their gold and convert some of their treasure – the house of Guillard and Carnot. They also offered the ship for sale to Jeremiah, who paid 7,000 gp. Messrs., Guillard and Carnot were able to direct the players to a skilled jeweler who learned his craft from the elves. After some discussion and a small suggestion spell, they were able to find out that this individual did indeed produce a phylactery for a client and had it shipped beyond the Burdundy kingdom. Putting two and two together, the players were able to figure out that Fizboth was likely in the ruins of Nekaloti.

It doesn't matter how much treasure there is if there is a dragon also

After resting up from the manticore encounter, the players set on some serious magical recon. Using his abilities, Michelle spied out the insides of the Ear and the Woodpecker. A single pale skinned humaniod was observed in the Woodpecker, while several of the same type of creature was spied upon in the Ear. Also spied – a dragon flying in and out of what appeard to be a burrow beneath the Ear. It was red and not particuarly large for a dragon, but a dragon all the same.

The players decided to investigate the humaniod who was residing and apparently keeping lookout in the Woodpecker. Making sure the dragon was not in the skies, several of the players called their stone horses, “on prancer, on dancer, on cupid”, and scampered over to the Woodpecker. They managed to sneak inside without being seen and met the humaniod, who was awoken as they entered. The players asked this stange individual (who was of no race they had ever seen) all sorts of questions. Unfortunatly, he understood none of them. Much pantomime and hand motions ensued as the players desperatly tried to communicate, to no avail. The increasingly desperate motioning did manage, however, to provoke the already nervous humaniod. A quick combat ensued that turned out bad for the stranger. (and for the players, who were able to get not information).

Investigating the Ear was next. After careful waiting, the players entred through the dragon’s burrow, which they knew to be empty of the one dragon they had seen flying about. It was, however, full of mound upon mound of treasure. But, they were on a mission to save Black Dagger. Stairs led from the burrow into the heart of the Ear. Rooms, sleeping quarters, etc. were seen as they quietly snuck around, until they surprised one of the same humaniods. Much shouting, confusion, fighting, etc. followed in front of the large orb that St. Julius had described which held the psyche of Black Dagger. Most of the stange humaniods fell dead in the melee, except for one, who unfortunatly blinked into another plane of existance. The players quickly gathered the essense of their commrad and grabbed what quick loot they could. As the fled, a whole armed battalion of the same type of creature blinked back into their world, ready to do battle. The players, just in the nick of time, threw down their black stone figurines, and with an “on vixen,” etc. escaped in the nick of time back to St. Julius’s isle.

The grumpy good lich

The party of undead slayers spent two days aboard the Moon Gazer as they headed back to the Isle of the Good Lich. The sailing was fine and they had a chance to mend their armor, reflect on their battles, and heal their wounds. They arrived in the bay and, after dropping anchor, left the crew on the Moon Gazer and headed to shore. They were dutifully met by the Dock Guardian, who led them through the well manicured island. The Gate Guardian let them into the courtyard of the cottage and into the house of St. Julius, who was not happy. From the moment they entered a very cross St. Julius castigated the party for playing with the Deck of Many things. “You were given a mission to slay undead, not to take unnecessary risks for your own lust for power. Now look at what happened – Black Dagger’s mind has fled, not that anyone can tell.”

St. Julius gave them the choice of continuing on their missions straight away, or rescuing Black Dagger’s mind. Fortunately, his mind was still on the same plane of existence and on the same planet – way up North in the Equatorial Wastes where the hot sun blazed. He warned them of a dragon that was working with some pale skinned humanoids who seemed to have Black Dagger’s mind in a crystal. St. Julius gave them some magical horses that transported them nearby in an instant. But, before they left, St. Julius took Ryktbar aside. He had other business for Ryktbar, who would not be venturing into the hot northern wastes to save his friend.

They landed on the other side of the mountains from the valley that contained the fortress where Black Dagger’s mind was located. The started to cross the mountains up through a path, but the hot sun bore down hard on them. The rested for awhile, but decided to travel mostly at night. But, they were unfortunately ambushed by brigands in the mountain passes A stream of cross-bow bolts came from nowhere, and a spell was cast which caused roots to grow up at their feet. The party was split in two halves. The front half was set upon by several warriors, while two thieves snuck up and back-stabbed James the angry. But, after the initial surprise wore off, the party was able to quickly put the robbers down until their leader cried for quarter. Sage quickly charmed him. They got some information out of him, though James the Angry killed the other surviving prisoner. The party also found another victim of the highwaymen – Girard (Guyard?, Geuerd?). In thanks for the rescue, Girard pledged his allegiance to James the Angry.

After continuing through the night, a magical shelter was cast and the leader of the thieves was interrogated. He provided some information, but several of the players were suspicious that he might turn on them if Sage’s charm wore off. He was sent on his way, but killed by a magic missile to the back from James. This may have been the last straw for The Huntress, as James’s prayers of healing ceased to be answered shortly thereafter.

After waiting in the shelter all day, the players after dusk headed down to the valley. There, they they spotted three enormous boulders that lay some what out of place on the dry flat desert valley floor. Into each was carved a fortress. Before being killed (murdered?) the leader of the robbers told the adventures that the names of the three fortresses were “The Dwarf”, “The Woodpecker” and “The Ear”. They activated their magical horses and quickly rode across the night time desert floor, anxious to avoid the gaze of the dragon. The entered, somewhat haphazardly, into the fortress called the Dwarf. As they entered into an enormous dark semi-circular room, they noticed a floor littered with bones just before they were set upon by the residents – a family of manticores. Though large, they were no match for experienced wizards and warriors. All four were dispatched without casualties.

Ding dong, the vampire is dead, the wicked ...

The valiant heroes spend much time exploring the crypts at the roots of the fortress. Many horrors awaited them as they opened the various tombs. A she vampire here, a ghost here, a wight there. At one point, anyone stepping beyond a certain point was teleported to a mysterysous dark room and in their place a foul undead monster. Finally, the found a place of refuge, a holy place a midst the foul desecration: the tomb of Ignatius’s brother. There they found rest, and a +2 suit of plate mail. They also found that the “villager” whom they rescued in the dungeouns refused to enter the place of respiate, and in the end revealed himself as a werewolf.

After resting for over a day, they adventured again through the crypts. There they found “pee”, aka Pierre de Ruffec. Pee had been captured by the vampire and left to rot in a tomb. The party found him after he had been a long time sitting in his own feces and in poor spirits. But, after rescue he quickly recovered and joined the party in their noble quest. He, like Demonbreun, was a member of the secretive City Watch.

Finally, they party found their way into the very heart of the castle – the tomb of Ignatius. There they found the foul beast and made combat with his minions. Though the battle was long, and Sage Redfield “Hunter of Orcs” bore the largest brunt of Ignatius’s onslaught, the vampire was finally destroyed.

After some rest, the party returned to the combat that they had fled from some time ago – the two Iron Goleums guarding a treasure chest. This time, they were prepared. Many blessings and incantations prepared them including a haste spell. The golumns were no match this time. They fell in short order and with no casualties.

After figuring out the magical traps guarding the chest, the players found the most wondrous of items – a deck of cards that dealt fates both foul and fair. James received the best of fates, as did Michelle. Fate went worst for Demonbreun, who aquired some type of immortal enemy. But the draw went worst of all for BlackDagger, whose mind was captured and his body left dumb.

The party escaped the dungeon, but on the way back to Wengen, ran into trouble with the gypse band who had been serving Ignatius. The gypsies had set a trap of both magic and arrows for the party as they headed back through the forest. Though difficult, they were in the end defeated. They returned to the town as heroes and banished the last of the oppressors. A deal was made with the people of Wengen – the heroes returned a large portion of the treasure found in Hawkwatch to the villages in return for the villages getting the rest of the loot to the Moongazer, which was still waiting in anchor.

Sergei muv thrones

We explored more of the castle.

Eventually we finally took James’s course of rappelling down into the crypt below the chapel.

There, we found two coffins holding ignatius’s brother (Sergei) and sister. In Sergei’s coffin was the hilt of Sergei’s sword. It flew to the blade we were carrying and magically bonded to it, making itself whole.

Demonbreun took up Sergei’s sword going forward. The only way out of this room was a set of stairs going up. Midway up the stairs was a blue curtain of energy. Only the paladin could pass through normally. Everyone else who tried was teleported to the top of the stairs—there was no going back down for the rest of the party.

In the crypt at the top of the stairs, roughly 30 10×10 mausoleums stood around the great room at regular intervals. We checked out the six in the center of the room, forcing our way into each mausoleum. There was a vampire in one, a banshee in another, two were unmarked and empty. The other two contained two dead bodies that were not undead.

A fear effect from the banshee scattered everyone all over the crypt, which incidentally allowed us to explore the rest of the room in the panic. We studied the inscriptions on every mausoleum in the north side of the room, but didn’t keep opening mausoleums because we were pretty beat up after the banshee.

We discovered a larger blessed space behind a portcullis where Sergei was buried, the only place in the entire castle that Breka didn’t get an overwhelming sense of evil. We opened it, but Vlad Morton wouldn’t go into the space, claiming the Sergei was a terrible man and the legends were twisted.

James threw his mace of disruption to Vlad, who caught it, but burned himself in the process. We called his bluff and were about to fall on him, when he turned into a wolf and fled. We were too beat up to chase him, and couldn’t outrun a wolf, so we let him go.

We rested in there, healed up, and then searched the room. The only person who could open the tomb of Sergei was the paladin. Inside, he found a wrinkled corpse and Sergei’s +2 plate mail in excellent condition. Despite his objections about grave robbing, the party badgered Breka into taking the armor. He looked very handsome.

After nearly a full day of resting, casting healing spells, and resting again, we left Sergei’s blessed space and walked across the symmetrical crypt to what we knew would be a mirrored room on the other side, likely holding Ignatius’s tomb.

Everyone who crossed the threshold into that space was teleported into a coffin in one of the mausoleums. All of their equipment was magically teleported onto undead monsters, wielding their weapons and wearing their armor. Sage and James had to fight monstrous versions of Breka and Demonbreun.

Meanwhile, Breka and Demonbreun had to break out of a room full of coffins that also contained several wights. Demonbreun bashed his open and then battered down the door. Break also broke out of his coffin. Meanwhile James also crossed the threshold and wound up in a coffin. Sage dispatched the undead James monster as well.

Fifteen wights faced the party in the crypt, as the stripped party members raced to regain their weapons. A pitched battle ensued, including Sage suffering level drain from their attacks. Then the party went back to Sergei’s tomb to rest up before returning to exploring the castle.

Meeting St. Julius

The Dock Gaurdian led the players through the magically well maintained isle until they arrived at a low wooden fence. On the other side was a empty suit of armor holding a halbard. On the halbard was a mouth which spoke – “The master would like to see you, but first, could you help me with my friend problem.” The suit of armor handed two clay puzzles to the party. “For this one, we are missing a freind. For the other, find the one that has no friend.” The players gathered to figure out the two puzzles, which were collections of oddly colored shapes. After some figureing, they solved the puzzle and the Gate Gaurdian let the through. The Dock Gauridan led them further down a stone lane past almond trees to a small tidy stone cottage. Once inside, the Dock Gaurdian said, “The master is waiting for you in the study.”

They walked into the study to find an old man at a cluttered desk in fine robes. All around were full book shelves, while the walls were decorated with swords, armor, and paintings. “Well Hello, I’ve been waiting for such a long time, Greetings…” and the old man greeted them each by name. After some puzzlement and coaxing, the players learned from the old man that

While legend says that St. Julius, along with Nikolas the Lich Slayer were killed by Leo the Dark, St. Julius had in-fact survived the battle when he accidentially drank a Lich -making potion, which he has mistaken as a healing poition

There was a growing tide of undead. There still lived Lich under the remains of the Eternal City of the Sun. Also, several wizards, including Fizboth, were attempting to become Liches.

They were asked to take on the task of fighting the undead hordes by taking on 4 quests.

The players agreed. At one point, after thinking about St. Julius’s age, James the Angry was able to see through the illusion and see St. Julius the good-lich’s true form – a rotting skeletal figure in rich clothes.

For the first quest the players journeyed to one of the near-by Hidden Isles to a pyramid full of mummies. After some exploration they found them. The mummies put up a fierce battle. Demonbreun was knocekd unconcious after going toe-to-toe with two mummies, while Breca Wahrhaft was nearly brought to that point. All the players were helpful, although Sage Redfield “Hunter of Orcs” initially fled in terror. James cast a fireball spell from a scroll to finish off the remaining undead. Due to the curse of mummy rot, none of their damage could be magically healed.

The badly beat up party (who only plundered the undead portion of the pyramid) encountered a horde of ghouls on the way back to the Moon Gazer, but James was able to turn them. They retunred to the Isle of the Good Lich to find St. Julius most cross – “Your quest was to cleanse Pyramid Island from the foul undead presense. Yet the whole horde of ghouls still remains! Finsh them and you will be able to heal your friends.”

A mostly unconcious Demonbreun stayed in St. Julius and Hilbert(the Dock Gaurdian)’s care. The rest of the party returned, some what grumpily, to Pyramid Island. After some searching they found and destroyed the ghoul party.

On the ship ride back to Isle of the Good Lich the players were able to rest up and the benifit of experience from the fighting. James was able to heal the mummy rot in all the characters. Upon returning, St. Julius granted Breca the Holy Sword of Nicolas the Lich Slayer. He granted each of the other characters a wonderous item – a mighty mace to James, a powerful throwing hammer to Sage, a protective ammulet to Demonbreun, and a cloak to Michelle.

Upon examining their goods and resting for two weeks, the players inquired about the second quest. St. Julius responded – “on a nearby island, a vile vampire enslaves an entire village…”

The orc raiding party lay dead all about the feet of the party as they scavanged what they could. James the Angry cast a detect magic, and lo and behold, the orc captian’s sword and the orc mage’s bracers both glowed. There was also the spell book of the mage, which both James and Michelle took great interest in, especially the mirror image spell that had been used to so much effect against the party.

Michelle cast and identify spell on these items, plus several potoins that the party had gathered along the way. While this was going on, Ryktbar and Jeremiah the half goblin started to work on the ship. Over the next day they made just enough repairs so that the boat could float in the river. It took another week of repairs before Jeremiah was confident they wouldn’t sink while sailing.

Jeremiah and Ryktbar’s sailing skills together with the party’s hard work could get the boat to putter along the shore, but would be no match for the open ocean. Sailors were needed. They had the choice to cut across the Burgundy sea to the Princely Free States, or to putter up the coast all the way back to Mars where they had begun the sailing portion of the adventure. They wisely choose to take the slow road up the shallow waters of the coast.

In two weeks they had limped into the harbor at Mars. The customs agent eyed them suspiciously at first, but allowed them to proceed after some money was exchanged. Jeremiah helped them hire a skeleton crew of 18 for the journey, plus several other shipwrights to make reparis. The new crew and the party were hard at work makign the Moon Gazer ship-shape. The players also had some time to heal up and practice their skills – James the Angry and Sage both attended to religious affairs and Michelle studied his spell books and loaded up his ion stones.

So, it was off the the Hidden Isles at last. The crew, when informed of their destination, nearly mutinied, but were persuaded to sail past the Goblin Isles into waters unknown. But which of the Hidden Isles to journey to? One of them had an icon of a light house on the map, which seemed as good as any to journey to. However, a large storm blew up and changed their plans. The boat was blown into a kelp sea near an small island. Michelle, Sage, James, and Ryktbar decided to explore the island while the crew and the rest of the party cut the Moon Gazer loose.

After only a short distance the players spotted a large stone edifice. After hiking further through the dense semi-tropical forest, they saw a very larged steped pyrimid. They explored the remainder of the island before heading into the pyrimid, and found only the ruins of a long abondoned building. So, they headed into the pyrimid. There were two entrances, and they decided to explore the top entrance first. The air inside the pyrimid was strangly dry compared to the moistness of the jungle. Several large bats flew out of the darkness, but James and Sage both managed to charm one. They then headed further in and found a small oval shapped room with a barrel vault ceilign. It was well apportioned and contianed an alter, a large chest, and a wardrobe. James found some fancy priestly vestments while Michelle found three zombies in the chest. Fortunatly James drew out his preistly symbol and destroyed all three in a single invocation. The explorers decided to put on the presitly vestments as disguise, as Sage had determined they were a part of some death cult.

They ventured further in found a spiral staircase going both up and down. They went up and found a large, circular room with a dias, upon which there were three coffins. These were richly decorated, while the walls contained many drawlings and symbols. James was pretty sure the drawling were about a little girl and her dog, while Michelle was pretty sure they had to do with the affairs of necromany. The party decided to plunder the coffins, and found only long dead bodies. After several minutes of exmamining the coffins, they heard a noise coming up the staircase. They set battle lines and saw, to their horror, a large undead mummy come up the stair case to attack. Several magic missles were used, after which both Sage and James seized up in fear. The mummy swiped several times missing, but did claw a wound in James’s arm. Ryktbar charged and knocked the paralized Sage out of the way of the mummy’s attacks, while Michelle continued to cast magic missles until finally destroying the mummy.

James’s wound was strangly impervious to healing magic and was quite irritated. Some oil of disenchantment temporarily releaved the irritation, but only for an hour or so. The player headed down to the lower chamber where they found the mummy’s tomb, along with a large supply of gold. They journeyed back to the ship, which was now nearly free.

The players still did not know which of the Hidden Isles they had landed on. They sailed south for a day, found nothing, returned the Mummy Isle, and then sailed NE to find the island with the lighthouse. A few hundred yards to the west there was a small cove with a small dock. The Moon Gazer laid anchor and the players ventured to the dock on a row boat. As they neared the dock, a small strange metal creature hopped. to the dock, welcomed them (“welcome to the Isle of Rest, the master is expecting you.”), and gave them a riddle to solve in order to come ashore. After some time Sage (of all people) guessed the correct answer.

The victorious party took a few days to regain their bearings, bandage their wounds, and investigate their loot. The boat (“The Moon Gazer”) was heavily damaged by several years of neglectful treatment by the ogres. But James-the-angry managed to cast the scroll and got the boat floating slightly above the ground. But pushing the 60 ton boat back to water proved tricky and it took several days.

On the fifth day one of the sharp eyed players spotted nosy figures in the woods spying on them. This was a portent of bad things to come. Upon reaching the riverbank, they found an entire company of Rock Orcs waiting for them. The orc captain declared that our band of heroes had broken Rock Orc law by assaulting and murdering lawful inhabitants and stealing their property. They were ordered to surrender. Obviously they didn’t.

All of a sudden several members of the party got an irresistible urge to charge the Orc battle lines. Arrows were unleashed and the melee was joined. Fortunately Sage cast an entangle which subdued the half of the orc forces, including the captain and the orc mage. The players made a powerful assault, particularly against the orc sargents, but then were surprised by an orc contingent emerging from their rear.

The battle looked grim for awhile, and both Ryktbar, Denumbreun, and James needed emergency triage during the battle. Finally the tide turned and the players were able to rout the orcs.